Hollywood’s unexpected 2026 is continuing to shock industry observers, distributors, and theater owners. This weekend, A24 released Kane Parson’s “Backrooms,” a horror-thriller based on the filmmaker’s original YouTube series. Even with an established fanbase (the first video has 80 million views) and strong pre-release tracking, no one expected the movie to open to $81.4 million over the three-day weekend.
READ MORE: “Obsession,” “Backrooms” And The Viral Horror Boom
Not only is “Backrooms” the No. 1 opening for A24 all time, but in three days it’s already become its second-highest-grossing movie of all time in the U.S., and it should overtake “Marty Supreme’s” $96 million domestic tally for the top spot within days. Globally, “Backrooms” has earned $118 million. It should also surpass “Marty’s” $191 global cume in the weeks ahead. At a reported budget under $10 million, the movie is already a cash cow for A24 and its co-financer, Chernin Entertainment. The question now is how high can it go? The film has a weak B- CinemaScore grade, but that’s typical for horror movies. Slightly more worrisome is the 74% on Rotten Tomatoes, but the movie’s initial performance is beyond anyone’s dreams. It has solidified the 20-year-old Parsons as a brand with the Gen Z and Gen Alpha moviegoing set. An incredibly young audience, as polling indicates that 86% of ticket-buyers were under 35, two-thirds under 25, and 44% under 21.
Not to be outdone, Focus Features made its own history over the weekend. The venerable Universal Studios division saw “Obsession” earn another $26.4 million in its third weekend for $104.6 million in the U.S. so far. That is an incredible 10% jump in its third weekend after an unprecedented 39% jump in its second frame. Focus reports this is the first time anything like this has occurred outside the holiday movie window since 1982. Internationally, Curry Barker‘s flick was up 21% with a worldwide tally now of $148 million.
The $104.7 million domestic cume also makes “Obsession” the highest-grossing domestic release in Focus history, surpassing “Downton Abbey,” which took in $97 million stateside in 2019. Acquired for $15 million at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival (one of the biggest premiere successes in the festival’s history), “Obsession” is also a massive profit center for Focus and NBCUniversal.
Last weekend’s champ, “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” had a bit of a stumble, falling 69% for another $25 million, $137 million in the U.S., and $246 million worldwide. That’s a worse drop than the second weekend of 2018’s last stand-alone “Star Wars” film, “Solo: A Star Wars Story.” It also appears tough for “Grogu” to match “Solo’s” $213 million U.S. gross, but it cost substantially less. At a production cost of $144 million, the Jon Favreau Disney+ spin-off will still break even for Walt Disney Studios and Lucasfilm. The drop, however, suggests that the film has not appealed to audiences beyond the core “Star Wars” fanbase.
Two other wide releases this weekend were Sony Pictures’ “The Breadwinner” and Focus Features’ “Pressure.” The former promoted a discount ticket program to get audiences to see comedian Nate Bargatze’s feature debut, but it still pulled in just $7.5 million in 3,252 locations. At a net cost of $25 million, it won’t be that much of a bomb for Sony, but it’s certainly not ideal. A “yikes” inducing 36 grade on Metacritic and a 29% on Rotten Tomatoes may be partially indicative of the box office results.
Financed by Focus, Working Title, and StudioCanal, “Pressure” pulled in $5.7 million in just 1,829 theaters. The Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser D-Day thriller has a shot at good word of mouth with older audiences after an A CinemaScore grade and strong reviews (77 on Metacritic, 86% on Rotten Tomatoes).
Among other films already in theaters, “Michael” grossed $339 million in the U.S. and $846 million worldwide. “The Devil Wears Prada 2” has earned $209 million domestically and $641 million worldwide. “The Sheep Detectives” hit $54 million domestic and crossed the $100 million mark globally with $101 million.
New releases on Friday include “Masters of the Universe,” “Scary Movie,” and the wide expansion of “Power Ballad,” which did a solid $17,000 per in 10 theaters this past weekend.
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